308 Tail Light housing sealer.

Kind of a obscure question. I have one of the tail light housings (lenses) off as I needed to repair two of the attaching screws that had broken loose from the housing. I noticed there is some kind of sealer/putty that seals the tail light housing rubber gasket to the body. Anyone know what kind of sealer it is. It looks like the old body putty that came in strips about a foot long.

Thanks
Barry

 

I'm pretty sure that there should not be any putty in there. The rubber gasket is all I have ever seen between the lens and the body. There is no reason for putty.

 

What he said ^^^^^^^^

 

The putty you found is probably from a previous owner trying to stop it from leaking water into the trunk.

 

Thanks guys. That makes sense.

 

Anyone know a good way to safely separate the the lens from the base housing?

 

Jonny
Mine was half way disconnected when I pulled it off. The lens doesn't go very far into the housing. I think you could use an exacto or a strong dental pick and scrape the glue at the joint. I reattached mine with super glue. Why do you want to separate it. Mine was really dirty inside so I cleaned it with paper towels and Windex via the bulb openings.

Barry

 

So I think I got to the bottom of the tail light sealer question. For what ever reason the top part of the tail light housing that holds the light bracket was hitting the inside body work and therefore wouldn't allow the tail light housing to seat properly. I don't know if the taillight housing is original although all the markings are the same. Maybe the car was hit and inner structure is a little out of wrack, Anyway I heated the housing a bent to tab down but it still hit so I cut about 1/8 inch off and everything is bubble gum and lollipops again. Finally got the flasher deal figured out for the Led turn bulbs (got a solid state flasher with a blink frequency adjustment) and now just have to change a wire location on the flasher panel and add a ground.

Barry

 

Hey Barry,

I have a spare set I want to experiment with. Will try the dental pick with heat bath to see if that loosens it up.

Jon

 

Jon
Careful of the heat. I heated the housing (base) as described above and if you get it to hot it makes a mess.

Barry

 

Barry this is a good time to clean all you lenses, I heard people uses rice and bleach and shake it all around the inside with good results.

 

Mike
I only pulled one lens which I cleaned with Windex and paper towels. sprayed a bunch of Windex then stuffed some paper towel and used a long screw driver to swish it around. Worked great. I really leery about removing the other lenses as the attaching screws are rusted and corroded which I believe caused the damage in the lens I removed. They are really brittle and crack very easily.